Neenah police acquire armored military truck

Aldermen unaware of plan to obtain military surplus vehicle

May 2, 2014

The Appleton Police Department added a Caiman armored vehicle to its fleet in April. Neenah police will get a similar truck next week. Door and Waupaca counties also are in line to get trucks. / Submitted to Post-Crescent Media

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About the military excess property program

Section 1033 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997 authorizes the Department of Defense to transfer excess military property to state and local law-enforcement agencies. The Wisconsin Technical College System and Wisconsin Emergency Management administer the program in Wisconsin. The federal government retains ownership of the equipment, which can range from guns to trucks, but the equipment must be maintained by the local agency.

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NEENAH — To the surprise of aldermen, the Neenah Police Department will accept a heavily armored military surplus truck to protect its officers in situations involving gunfire or the threat of it.

The Caiman MTV (multiterrain vehicle) will be similar to the one given to Appleton police last month through the U.S. Department of Defense’s excess property program.

It will replace Neenah’s Peacekeeper, a lighter armored truck that police have used for protection since 2000.

Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson said the Caiman is large enough to evacuate “an entire classroom of grade school children.”

“It’s more than we need, without question,” Wilkinson said.

It’s also free, except for the $4,600 needed to haul the truck from Sealy, Texas, to Neenah. Wilkinson said two local companies offered to pay for the transportation, so tax dollars won’t be needed.

Neenah police say the Peacekeeper, built in 1979, no longer provides adequate protection against the firepower of today’s weaponry. To buy an armored vehicle that would meet the department’s needs would cost about $300,000, officials said.

“It just seems almost a waste of taxpayers’ dollars to spend $300,000 on something that we can get for virtually nothing,” Capt. Tom Long said.

“I want to make sure our guys have better equipment than the bad guys,” he said.

Policy debate

Police must pick up the Caiman on Tuesday in Texas or they risk losing it to another applicant. The news stunned and irritated aldermen, who were unable to debate the pros and cons of the truck before police agreed to take it.

Alderman William Pollnow Jr. wants more information about the parameters of the surplus program and the maintenance costs of the truck. He also has concerns with the militarization of police, which was the subject of a Post-Crescent Media story on Sunday.

Proceeding without answers, Pollnow said, is “an abdication of what we do as aldermen.”

“I strongly recommend that we defer this,” he told the Public Services and Safety Committee. “If that means we will not get it, I think that’s the price we have to pay because we were not provided information in a logical, fair manner.”

City Attorney Jim Godlewski said the city doesn’t have a policy governing the acceptance of gifts, so no approval by the committee or Common Council is necessary, giving police the ability to proceed.

Pollnow and Alderwoman Cari Lendrum said they will work to establish a policy to avert similar surprises in the future.

“When we receive equipment that is going to have some sort of budgetary impact, we need to know about it,” Lendrum said.

Bulletproof

Caiman trucks were purchased by the U.S. military to transport troops and equipment in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Thousands now sit idle and are being offered to law-enforcement agencies around the country.

Police agencies that have or will receive the trucks include Appleton, Stevens Point, Eau Claire, La Crosse and Brown, Door and Waupaca counties. Calumet County is working to obtain a Peacekeeper from Milwaukee County.

Neenah police plan to use its truck for protection when confronting armed, barricaded suspects. “None of the weaponry used in local incidents can penetrate the Caiman,” Wilkinson said.

The truck also could be used to evacuate people from an unsafe scene and to respond to disasters. Long said Neenah police encounter about 50 high-risk situations annually.

Police will store the truck at the city’s westside fire station on Breezewood Lane.